GENEVA (AFP) — The UN Human Rights Council endorsed a report Friday accusing Israel and the Palestinian hardliners Hamas of war crimes in the Gaza conflict, dealing a fresh diplomatic blow to the Jewish state. Israel called the move a ‘’diplomatic farce’’ and said it harms Middle East peace efforts, but the Palestinians welcomed the resolution, which they said should result in follow-up action from the UN Security Council.

Some 25 of the Human Rights Council’s 47 members, led by Arab and African states, voted for the resolution. Six, including the United States, voted against, while 16 others either abstained or did not vote.

“We thought that the resolution had an unbalanced focus. And we’re concerned that it will exacerbate polarization and divisiveness,’’ said US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in Washington. But Kelly said the US vote against the resolution ‘’in no way diminishes the deep concern that we have about the tragic events of last January and the suffering caused by the violence in Gaza and southern Israel.’’

Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a joint letter to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging that the report lead to improvements in the situation on the ground.

The resolution calls for endorsing “the recommendations contained in the report,’’ produced by a fact-finding mission led by international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone on the 22-day conflict that erupted on December 27, 2008. When the fighting ended, 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis had been killed. It also ‘’calls upon all concerned parties including United Nations bodies, to ensure their implementation.’’

Goldstone concluded that both Israel and Hamas, Gaza’s rulers, committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the conflict that Israel launched in response to rocket fire from the enclave.